Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080207302 | Method, Apparatus, and Program Product for Presenting Results in a Bingo-Type Game - Each bingo card representation matched with a game designation draw in a given bingo game (a “matched bingo card representation”) represents a respective game play record providing a result in the bingo game. The result represented by a matched bingo card representation is displayed to a player in the bingo-type game through a result representation provided at a suitable player station. Each result representation is correlated to one or more game results in the bingo-type game so that each game result in the bingo-type game is associated with a result representation. Each result representation includes a graphical representation unrelated to the bingo-type game. That is, although the game results are simply bingo game results defined by predetermined patterns of matches between the various card designations and the designation set produced or called for a particular bingo-type game, the game results are displayed to the players with a graphical display including a graphic that is not merely a graphical representation or reproduction of a bingo card. Displaying the result of the bingo-type game to the player thus involves displaying the result representation associated with the particular game result in lieu of or at least in addition to, the representation of the matched bingo-type game card. | 08-28-2008 |
20090117963 | GAMING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING ENHANCED PLAYER PARTICIPATION IN LOTTERY GAMES - An electronic player station displays to a player a player choice display that includes a number of representations. The number of representations are displayed to the player simultaneously and each representation is selectable in some fashion by the player; however, the representations preferably do not themselves provide any indication as to a correlated prize. Thus each representation embodies a player choice in the play of a game, but does not indicate a prize correlated to that player choice. A game result for the player choice is obtained from any one of a number of game play record pools that are simultaneously available through one or more data processing devices for supplying the game result. A player choice input is received through the player station and a result is displayed to the player. The player choice input identifies a selected one of the number of representations. The result displayed to the player is a result associated with an assigned game play record that has been assigned to the player in response to the player choice input. | 05-07-2009 |
20090143130 | METHOD FOR PROVIDING A PLAYING CARD GAME SIMULATION BASED ON BINGO GAME RESULTS - A method includes displaying playing card face representations at an electronic player station. The displayed playing card face representations include card face representations that are included in a group of card face representations that has been assigned to the player in response to a bingo pattern achieved by the player in a bingo game. The player may then select one or more of the displayed card face representations to be replaced with one or more card face representations that are also included in the assigned group but have been concealed from the player. A prize is ultimately awarded to the player based on the card face representations remaining in the player's hand after replacement of the selected card face representations. This prize represents the player's prize for achieving the bingo patter, but is based on the player's card hand produced after the player makes their selections and replaces the desired cards. | 06-04-2009 |
20100113123 | GAMING SYSTEM AND APPARATUS WITH PLAYER SELECTED GAMING MODES - Gaming systems, apparatuses, and methods are disclosed with player selectable gaming modes for players to participate in wagering games. The disclosed gaming systems and apparatuses provides for players to manually select between multiple playing modes, such as automatic game play operation or player participatory game play operation. | 05-06-2010 |
20100197387 | GAMING SYSTEM WITH MODIFIABLE PRIZE DISTRIBUTION ASSIGNMENT METHOD - A gaming system is disclosed wherein an outcome probability is determined for each of a number of possible outcomes achievable in a wagering game. Different subsets are then associated with each different prize level in a desired prize distribution. The possible outcomes and their respective probability are assigned or mapped to the different subsets so that the probability of achieving a possible outcome included in a subset comprises a value approximating the desired probability of an award of the prize level with which the subset is associated. | 08-05-2010 |
20100203957 | GAMING SYSTEM AND METHOD INCLUDING ANONYMOUS PLAYER TRACKING - A gaming system and method are disclosed that include anonymous and identified player tracking, wherein gaming data is collected over one, two, or more gaming sessions, the data is analyzed to determine whether a selected criterion or selected criteria have been met, and if so, then initiating a response, such as triggering a flag or transmitting a notification to an operator. | 08-12-2010 |
20100210340 | GAMING SYSTEM, MACHINE AND METHOD WITH A SCANNABLE PHYSICAL COMPONENT ASSOCIABLE WITH A GAME - A system, apparatus, and method are disclosed that include generating a scannable physical gaming component associable with a game. The disclosed method also includes identifying a game structure at a player station through a scan of the gaming component, receiving a game play request from a player at the player station, associating the game structure with the game, and awarding the player based on the game outcome. Further disclosed is a group or community game with which the player may be associated upon game play request wherein a winner may be determined based upon the game outcomes at respective player stations. | 08-19-2010 |
20100210363 | GAMING SYSTEM, MACHINE AND METHOD WITH USER SELECTABLE GAME INTERACTIVE MODE - A gaming system, apparatus, and method are disclosed which provide a player selectable option to manually interact by selecting game elements or initiate an automated mode whereby the gaming apparatus selects game elements in accordance with the rules of the game being played. An example disclosed embodiment includes a player being assigned a bingo card representation and a game designation set is associated with the bingo card representation, such that daubing the bingo card representation may be performed manually by the player at the player's respective player station using a suitable interface at the player station. Alternatively to manual daubing, the present invention includes automatically daubing one or more bingo card representations in response to an automatic daub input made by the player at the player station using a suitable input device. | 08-19-2010 |
20100216538 | GAMING SYSTEM, APPARATUS AND METHOD WITH A PLAYER DECISION FIELD FOR PROVIDING INTERACTIVE GAME RESULTS - A system, apparatus, and method are disclosed wherein a decision field is displayed having a number of result tokens spaced apart at different locations about the decision field, with each result token displaying a respective potential result. A decision point is also displayed within the decision field. This decision point is associated with two or more direction options which are preferably graphically depicted along with the decision point, and the player is enabled to make a direction input to select one of the direction options. | 08-26-2010 |
20110053674 | ELECTRONIC LOTTERY SYSTEM FOR INCREASING THE USAGE OF TICKETS IN A LOTTERY GAME - A lottery gaming system utilizes one or more distribution groups of game play records. The gaming system preferably distributes a distribution group of game play records to each of a number of assignment components in the gaming system. Various ones of the game play records are assigned from a distribution group in response to game play requests from respective players. The game play records that remain unassigned after a collection condition is met are collected and used to form a new distribution group available for re-distributing to an assignment component in the gaming system. | 03-03-2011 |
20110105214 | ELECTRONIC SWEEPSTAKES SYSTEM PROVIDING MULTIPLE GAME PRESENTATIONS FOR REVEALING RESULTS FROM A SINGLE SWEEPSTAKES GAME - A system, apparatus, and method are disclosed wherein a reveal request is initiated through a result reveal station by a person (user) who has previously made some purchase or donation and has been assigned one or more sweepstakes entries in an assignment order from a set of available sweepstakes entries for a sweepstakes game. This reveal request represents a request to reveal one or more of the results associated with the corresponding sweepstakes entries that have been assigned to the user. The reveal station employs a game presentation including various graphics and audio effects to show sweepstakes results in an entertaining fashion. In response to the reveal request, or perhaps even prior to the reveal request, one or more sweepstakes entries are selected to be revealed for the reveal request. The sweepstakes entries are selected in an order different from the order in which the sweepstakes entries were assigned to the user. The selection of entries is based on a set of game characteristics associated with the game presentation provided at the reveal station through which the reveal request is initiated. | 05-05-2011 |
20110207517 | METHOD, APPARATUS, AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PRODUCING AND USING GAME PLAY RECORDS IN A BINGO-TYPE GAME - A gaming system utilizes a game designation generating component, a gaming establishment component, and a set of predefined bingo card representations. Each bingo card representation is stored in electronic format as a data structure or data record defining a predefined pattern of game designations chosen from a pool of available designations. The game designation generating component generates sets of game designations from a pool of available designations. The method employed in the gaming system includes pre-matching the bingo card representations to a given set of game designations to produce a matched card set. This pre-matching occurs prior to the sale, distribution, or assignment of card representations to players in the game. The matched card set includes a number of game play records, each corresponding to a different one of the bingo card representations and each being associated with a result indicator which indicates whether the respective bingo card representation is a winning card or losing card for that set of game designations. Data representing these matched card sets are stored and then the individual game play records are assigned to players in response to game play requests initiated by the players. | 08-25-2011 |
20110207533 | DYNAMICALLY CONFIGURABLE GAMING SYSTEM - A gaming system according to one form of the present invention includes a number of gaming machines, each gaming machine including a single player game presentation arrangement that may be reconfigured to provide any one of a number of game presentations. In addition to the gaming machines the gaming system includes a system configuration arrangement and a game modification controller. The system configuration arrangement produces system configuration commands based either on manual inputs, system usage information, or various information related to one or more players in a gaming facility. The game modification controller included in preferred forms of the gaming system receives the system configuration commands, and, in response to the commands, communicates presentation switching instructions to one or more gaming machines included in the system. | 08-25-2011 |
20110269524 | PLAYER ACTION INCENTIVE ARRANGEMENT FOR GAMING SYSTEMS - A processing device measures the time it takes for a player to take some action in a game and bases the award or result in the game for the player at least in part on that measured time. A player receives a more desirable result or outcome for a particular game play in response to a shorter player action time and/or receives a less desirable result or outcome for a particular game play in response to a longer player action time. Providing more desirable results for shorter player action times or less desirable results for longer player action times provides players an incentive that influences them to take the appropriate player actions more quickly. | 11-03-2011 |
20120100906 | Method, System, and Program Product for Conducting Multiple Concurrent Bingo Games - A method for conducting bingo games includes using a server to collect game play requests from a plurality of electronic player stations. The server determines if a group of the collected game play requests meets one or more predefined conditions for establishing a quorum, and if so conducts a game with the group of game play requests. Even after the game is started, the server continues to collect game play requests in preparation for conducting additional games. When enough game play requests are collected, the server starts the next game, even if previous games are still in progress. | 04-26-2012 |
20120108314 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING GAME PLAY IN AN ELECTRONIC LOTTERY GAME NETWORK - At least one pool of game play records is stored at a central processing system. Each game play record includes a record index selected from a set of unique index values, each associated with a different result type. A record index associated with a particular game play record is communicated from the central processing system to the player terminal in response to a game play request which a player has entered at the player terminal. The player terminal responds to the received record index by generating display commands using data at the player terminal to produce a graphic representation at the player terminal. This graphic representation is consistent with the result type associated with the index value comprising the particular record index which has been communicated to the player terminal. | 05-03-2012 |
20120190422 | METHOD, APPARATUS, AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PRESENTING RESULTS IN A BINGO-TYPE GAME - A result represented by a matched bingo card representation is displayed to a player in a bingo-type game through a result representation provided at a suitable player station. Each result representation includes a graphical representation unrelated to the bingo-type game. That is, although the game results are simply bingo game results defined by predetermined patterns of matches between the various card designations and the designation set produced or called for a particular bingo-type game, the game results are displayed to the players with a graphical display including a graphic that is not merely a graphical representation or reproduction of a bingo card. | 07-26-2012 |
20120202578 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MAPPING MULTIPLE BINGO GAME RESULTS TO A COMMON DISPLAY - Apparatus and methods are described for presenting multiple bingo game results on a common display. A bingo game player may participate in a number of bingo games and obtain results for each of those games. These bingo game results are combined to amount to a cumulative result, and a common graphic display is produced that is representative of the cumulative result. The common graphic display is then shown to the player on the display device of a particular electronic player station. | 08-09-2012 |
20120315975 | METHOD FOR PROVIDING A PLAYING CARD GAME SIMULATION BASED ON BINGO GAME RESULTS - A method includes displaying playing card face representations at an electronic player station. The displayed playing card face representations include card face representations that are included in a group of card face representations that has been assigned to the player in response to a bingo pattern achieved by the player in a bingo game. The player then selects one or more of the displayed card face representations to be replaced with one or more card face representations that are also included in the assigned group but have been concealed from the player. A prize is awarded to the player based on the card face representations remaining in the player's hand after replacement of the selected card face representations. This prize represents the player's prize for achieving the bingo pattern, but is based on the player's card hand produced after the player replaces the desired cards. | 12-13-2012 |
20130316785 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR CONDUCTING MULTIPLE CONCURRENT BINGO GAMES - A method for conducting bingo games includes using a server to collect game play requests from a plurality of electronic player stations. The server determines if a group of the collected game play requests meets one or more predefined conditions for establishing a quorum, and if so conducts a game with the group of game play requests. Even after the game is started, the server continues to collect game play requests in preparation for conducting additional games. When enough game play requests are collected, the server starts the next game, even if previous games are still in progress. | 11-28-2013 |
20140004923 | METHOD, APPARATUS, AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PRESENTING RESULTS IN A BINGO-TYPE GAME | 01-02-2014 |
20140221086 | DYNAMICALLY CONFIGURABLE GAMING SYSTEM - A gaming machine includes a cabinet having a main video display mounted on a front side of the cabinet. The gaming machine also includes at least one more additional video display mounted on the front side of the cabinet either above or below the game video display. The player controls include a separate player control touch screen mounted on a ledge projecting forwardly from the front side of the gaming machine cabinet, and facing upward to present reconfigurable player touch controls for the gaming machine. These controls may be reconfigured within a game or to change the game presentation on the machine in response to player commands or gaming network conditions. | 08-07-2014 |